


All Too Well

by smarter



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-08
Updated: 2013-03-06
Packaged: 2017-11-28 14:36:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/675495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smarter/pseuds/smarter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Ruby & Doctor Whale dated before Emma came to town and the curse was lifted? This is a multi-chaptered songfic set to Taylor Swift's song of the same name. It takes place before, during, and after Emma comes to StoryBrooke & breaks the curse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Flashbacks & First Dates

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to try to have an update once every other week, but I don't make any promises since my school schedule is kind of busy. I also plan on making a mix to go along with each chapter. You can find those on my tumblr, which is linked in my profile! xoxo enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor and Ruby go on their first date, despite a tragic marinara incident. Note: This is unbeta'd and I apologize.

_I walked through the door with you, the air was cold_  
 _But something about it felt like home somehow_  
 _And I left my scarf there at your sister's house_  
 _And you still got it in your drawer even now._

The curse has been broken for about a day and a half now and Ruby is in her bedroom, looking over the things her cursed self had accumulated. She runs her hands over all the trinkets, remembering the exact time and place each item came from. It was weird remembering all these small things from this life, Ruby's life, and remembering all the heartbreak that was Red's life. Her hand stops on a picture frame. She picks it up and walks over a few feet to sit on her bed. She runs her hands over the cool glass of the frame, they were so young but exactly the same. Ruby's heart swells and aches at the memory of this day. This was their first date. She wished she could go back to that day, she'd stay and never leave.

* * *

The bell on the door rang as he opened it. He shivered as he came from the cool autumn air into the warm diner.

"Sit anywhere you like, Ruby will be right with you." The old woman at the cash register ordered without looking up from her papers. He nods even though she's not looking and takes off his jacket before he slides into a booth.

Victor comes to the diner the same time every day without fail. He orders the same thing off the menu, but still gets something different every time. It's one of the reasons he likes coming here rather than the five star restaurant he calls his kitchen. The other reason is walking towards him with a big smile on her face. "Do I get the burger and fries this time?" he asks, eyebrow raised.

The waitress pretends to ponder this as she holds her pencil against her mouth. After a few moments she shakes her head and writes something on her order pad, "No. I think it's grilled cheese and tomato soup for you today, Doctor Whale."

"Whatever you say, Ruby. My stomach is at your mercy!" He smiles as she walks back toward the kitchen to give his order to the cook. They've been playing this game for a while now. He flirts and she pretends not to notice. Who could blame her, really? She was easily the most gorgeous woman in town and could have her pick of anybody within a five mile radius. There's no reason she'd choose him over a much more handsome suitor. He still makes it a point to ask her out every time he comes in though, and she shoots him down every single time. He's positive she'll say yes one of these days.

* * *

Ruby grins as she leans back against the wall, going back to filing her nails. She's just placed the good Doctor's order and she's rather pleased with herself.

"Doctor Whale again?" Granny peers over her glasses at her from her spot at the cash register. Ruby nods in response. "You take his order?" She nods again. "What he actually wants this time?" She smiles as she shakes her head. "One of these days he's going to stop giving us his business and it'll be all your fault!" Granny scolds.

"I doubt that," she responds. "He's madly in love with me." She pushes herself off the wall as the cook puts Whale's order on the counter and rings the bell. She slides the plate in front of him with a "Bon Appétit!" and turns to walk away before he calls her back.

"Did you know they're playing movies in the park all day today?" He seems nervous but is trying to come off as casual as possible.

Ruby puts a hand on her hip, shifting her weight to one foot. "Yeah, but isn't that for the kids? Cartoons or whatever?"

He furrows his brows, "Who said cartoons are just for children?" He shakes his head, "No, but they're playing stuff for the grown-ups later." Whale stalls his next sentence by taking a bite of his sandwich, glancing at Ruby as she sits down across from him with a smug look on his face. She knew what he was going to ask, but she wanted to give him the pleasure of asking anyway.

"They're playing American Werewolf in London at 9." He says to his bowl of soup. "We could have dinner at my place and then take a walk there?"

"Take a walk where?" She teases. She's definitely loving this more than the last dozen times.

Victor sighed exasperatedly and looked up at her. "The park? For the movie?"

Ruby laughs and stands up. The look on his face is enough to make her give in this time. "Yeah, I'll go with you. But only because your face matches the red in my hair." She pats his shoulder as she walks pass him, "I'll come over after my shift."

She sees Granny eyeing her from the counter and, after giving the two customers who just walked in some menus, goes to sit on the stool across from where she's standing.

"I don't think I've ever seen that man smile," the old woman says, "what did you say to him?"

Ruby turns her head back to glance at him before answering Granny's question, with a big smile of her own. "I made his dreams come true." Granny gives her an odd look. "Oh my god, Gran, I told him I'd go on a date with him! I'm going to need to get off early."

Granny sighs, relieved. "Okay, but only an hour."

* * *

Victor couldn't help but smile the whole way home, and he may or may not have done a celebratory dance when he walked in the door. He couldn't believe she had finally said yes. He had about five hours to kill and most of that needed to be spent prepping for dinner even though he had a full stomach. What do you even cook a girl who works at a diner? What do you cook a girl who probably prefers her grandmother's food over any other? Victor flipped through the family cookbook. The only thing he had all the ingredients for was Chicken Parmesan. Hopefully she liked Italian.

* * *

Ruby suddenly found herself feeling self-conscious about what she was wearing. She had taken a shower when she got off of work and had since changed her clothes four times. This was just Doctor Whale, it wasn't like this was a serious thing; she had seen him go on plenty of dates with other women. Why did she tell him yes anyway? Because of a werewolf movie? She groaned and took off the black dress she had put on just moments ago and grabbed a white shirt and a pair of black pants. Maybe the fifth time would be a charm.

* * *

The doorbell rings and he nearly drops the pan of newly bathed-in-mozzarella chicken on the floor. He has an inner debate for a moment on whether to answer the door or put the chicken back in the oven first. Door first. He sets the dish on the counter with a sigh before walking down the hallway to the front door.

"You're early." He says as he opens the door with a grin.

"I never said what time I was going to be here!" Ruby answers.

Whale considers this for a moment. "Touché." He steps aside so she can come in, "But dinner isn't done yet so you'll have to wait just a bit longer."

The door closes behind her as soon as she crosses the threshold. "I'm okay with that. I kind of wanted to watch you work magic anyway." She grins and begins to take off her scarf and jacket. He chuckles as he takes the items from her to hang on the hook by the door. "What?"

"I'm making Italian and you wore white." He says as he gestures to the long sleeve white shirt with red flowers that took her so long to pick out. "Hopefully you're not a messy eater." He chuckles again as he motions for her to follow him back to the kitchen.

* * *

His house was _huge_. Ruby was positive that his front room was bigger than all the rooms in the house she shared with Granny combined. The moment she got used to the extreme vastness of space, they had exited the hallway into the _gorgeous_ kitchen with its marble countertop and huge island with a built in stove. She had sat down at the barstool across from his workspace next to the stove and couldn't help herself from looking up at the enormously high ceilings, finding herself admiring the light fixtures, of all things. After a few moments, she realized he was staring at her with a look that expected an answer. He had clearly said something while she was too busy not listening and falling in love with his house.

"I'm sorry?"

He shook his head at her and went back to dicing up an onion. "Nothing. I just saw you admiring my kitchen," he threw the onions into the heated frying pan on the stove, "I modeled it after an Ikea catalog." He popped a green bean in his mouth before throwing a handful in the pan with the onions.

"Did you really?!" She asked, shaking her head as he offered her the green vegetable before throwing another handful in.

Victor laughed, putting the leftover green beans in a bag and putting them back in the fridge. "No. I inherited the place after my father died. I haven't touched a thing since, if we're not counting my bedroom; which I _did_ model after an Ikea catalogue. Though I might've been looking at the wrong page – grown men don't normally have bunk beds, do they?"

She smiles as she reaches over to snatch a piece of a carrot that he just cut before he has the chance to throw it into the pan with the rest of the vegetables. "Well, whoever decorated before you got it did an excellent job."

"That would be my mother." He says emphatically.

* * *

They're both sitting at the island now. Whale insisted that they sit there rather than the dining table; the dining table just seems so formal. He doesn't tell her that the last time he actually ate at that table was the Christmas before his mother died. That doesn't really seem like first date material.

Ruby has pulled her hair back and pushed up the sleeves of her shirt in an attempt to prevent any mishaps. This seems to have been done in vain, however, because after a few bites in he hears her whisper a curse and, out of the corner of his eye, sees her reaching for a napkin. He lets out a loud laugh as he stands up and walks over to the sink to wet a towel.

"I can't believe I missed the moment when I became a psychic." He says as he hands her the damp towel. If looks could kill, the glare she gave him would've done the trick, but he can't stop smiling.

Ruby groans as she tries to wipe the marinara sauce off her shirt to no avail. "This is only making it worse!" She throws the towel on the counter. "Whatever, I'll just walk around looking like a slob for the rest of the night." She shrugs as she goes back to eating the rest of her dinner, which she has to admit is so delicious that's it definitely worth getting a million stains on her shirt. Though she'd never tell Doctor Whale that.

Victor leans against the counter across from her. It was weird to admire the way she ate, right? He tells her to sit tight for a minute while he goes to get something. He knew her well enough to know that if she walked around with a marinara sauce stain on her shirt all night, that would be all she would think about and he didn't want that. He returned a few moments later and handed her a black t-shirt.

She raised an eyebrow as she took it from him, unfolding it to gauge whether or not she actually wanted to wear this particular thing of his or not. "Rolling Stones!?" She exclaimed.

He shrugged and told her "You can keep that." before going back to eating the rest of his dinner. She had cleaned her plate already and he needed to catch up if they were going to leave in time for the movie.

"I didn't peg you for a Rolling Stones kind of person," she said as she slid off the stool. She started to walk towards the bathroom only to realize she didn't know where it was and turned back. "Um, where can I change?"

"Down the hall, first door on your right."

Ruby nodded and headed to where he had directed her. She pulled off her stained shirt after she had locked the door behind her and held up the shirt he had given her, contemplating it. She spotted scissors on the counter and picked them up before double-thinking what she was about to do. "Hey Victor?" she called out after she had cracked the door open. "You said I could keep this, right?" She heard him yell back a yes and shut the door again. Right, so there was no way he could get mad if she just cut off the collar.

* * *

He's just gotten done washing the dishes when she walks back into the kitchen and he has to do a double take because she definitely looks more gorgeous than she did before they ate dinner and he wasn't aware that was even possible. She's cut the collar off his favorite band t-shirt that he never wears and it's resting just perfectly off of one shoulder. He's noticed that she's put her hair back down and arranged it carefully over her shoulders so her bra straps barely show. He sucks in a breath as she tentatively bites her lip and he wonders if she's doing that on purpose. He has to tell himself that obviously she's not, why would she be?

"This is okay right?" she asks because she notices he's staring and she wonders if maybe she shouldn't have destroyed a piece of clothing that he had so graciously given her.

"Um." He swallows, pulling down the sleeves of his own shirt. "Yes. It's perfect. It fits you perfectly." Whale walks toward her and she smiles at the compliment. "We should get going, though, before I say something that definitely isn't first date appropriate." He guides her to the front door and hands her her jacket before grabbing his own.

"Well now you've got me curious," she says, pulling her jacket on and walking out the door that he's just opened.

Victor laughs as he closes and locks the door behind him, shaking his head. "Do you mind if we walk there? It's not that far and I enjoy walking more than I enjoy driving." He hopes the unnecessary change of subject is enough to distract her.

It wasn't. She teases him relentlessly the entire walk to the park.

* * *

Victor tells Ruby to go pick a spot on the grass after her latest badgering, _"Is it because you can see my bra? Is that what you were going to comment on? Just tell me!"_ while he goes to get popcorn. Popcorn was totally his intention because what's a movie without popcorn with so much butter on it that it makes your fingers greasy? But then he spots the ice cream vender selling the ice cream treats that were definitely meant for the children earlier in the day. The kind in the shape of a character with gum for eyeballs and there was no way he could resist. So he gets a large popcorn and two ice creams and goes to find Ruby, who had, surprisingly found a perfect spot right in the middle.

"I got ice cream too," he tells her as he sits down beside her, handing her one of the two in his hand, setting the bag of popcorn between them. "It's Sonic the Hedgehog!" he grins, taking a small bite of the one he bought for himself.

Ruby laughs and shakes her head as she picks out the gumballs and sets them aside. "You are so much more of a nerd than I thought you were."

"Is this a good or bad thing?" He questions, eyebrow raised.

"I haven't decided yet." She shrugs, taking a bite of her ice cream.

A few moments pass and the movie is just about to start. Victor's finished his ice cream and has been chewing on the gum for a few minutes. He's leaning back on his hands, his head tilted to the side, contemplating. Suddenly he stands up and offers to take Ruby's empty popsicle stick to the trash can, where he tosses the gum as well. When he sits back down, the lamps have been dimmed down and the opening credits start to roll.

"What did you think I was?" Whale asks, his eyes staring straight ahead at the movie screen.

"Hmm?" Ruby turns her head to look at him. She's startled by how tense his face looks.

"What did you think I was?" He repeated. "When I kept asking you out, you kept saying no. I want to know what kind of person you thought wasn't worthy of your time." He glances over at her before returning his attention to the movie.

"Oh." She considers her words carefully before she speaks them. "Well I mean, you bring a different girl into the Diner at least once a week…" She's unsure of how to finish her sentence, she doesn't want to offend him. Victor chuckles and his face softens again.

"I take patients out to lunch sometimes," he explains, "the hospital food is atrocious!" He pushes a handful of popcorn into his mouth. "I can guarantee you that maybe 1 out of 10 of those women were genuine dates." He turns to grin at her. "I was saving myself for your yes."

She smiles and brings her knees up to her chest, leaning over to bump her shoulder against his. They watch the rest of the movie mostly in silence. She buries her face in his shoulder when the wolf attacks, and into her hands at the end when he dies. Victor glances over at her more than a few times during the movie. He enjoyed watching her watch the movie more than he enjoys the movie itself.

* * *

They walk silently side by side on the walk to her house. He has his hands in his pockets, and she's got her arms crossed to keep herself warm.

"Are you glad you finally decided to give in to my advances?" Whale asks, breaking the silence between them.

Ruby smiles and nods. "Yeah, yeah I am. I had a good time tonight. And I gotta admit," she tilts her head momentarily, "that marinara mishap was the best thing to ever happen to my outfit."

Victor laughs loudly. "I don't disagree," he glances over at her, "my shirt looks good on you." There's an awkward silence as they both process the innuendo of his words.

A few minutes pass and they've reached her place. This is the part where normally Victor would kiss his date goodnight and then be on his way, but something about Ruby is different and he doesn't feel like it's appropriate to kiss her on the first date. So he stands there with his hands in his pockets feeling awkward because he doesn't know what to do. Realizing that he's not going to make the first move, Ruby steps forward and wraps her arms around him and he feels like he could die right then and there. He returns her hug, breathing in the smell of her.

"Thanks again for tonight." She says, pulling away. "I'm definitely not going to say no next time." She says with a grin as she walks up the steps to her door.

"So you're saying there could be a next time?" He smiles.

"Well, I'm not saying there won't be!" She unlocks her door and walks inside, looking back once more before closing the door behind her.

* * *

Victor can't wipe the smile off his face the whole way home. He goes to hang his coat up when he gets home and chuckles to himself when he notices something on the hook next to where he put his coat. It's her scarf. His fingers graze the fabric and he decides to leave it there. She'll want it back sooner or later. He hopes for sooner.


	2. Sailboats & Tire Swings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby & Victor go on their second date, despite Victor's inability to make the first move.

 

 

 _Oh, your sweet disposition and my wide-eyed gaze_  
We're singing in the car getting lost upstate  
Autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place  
And I can picture it after all these days  
  
  
He went into the diner the next day with full intentions of asking her on another date; she _had_ said that she wouldn’t say no, so what did he have to lose? But then she brought him fish and chips instead of a burger and fries (well, he did get fries at least) and gave him the kind of grin that could melt hearts, so he ate his words and took his food to go.  
  
The same thing happened three days in a row. It was kind of ridiculous and very uncharacteristic of Victor. She was only one woman! He was hoping the fourth time would do it. He’d order the burger and fries, receive whatever she decided was good food on a Friday afternoon, and then he’d just do it. He’d ask her out.  
  
Except when he walked into the diner, bell announcing his arrival, he noticed that she was wearing his shirt. The Rolling Stones one she had altered so perfectly. She was wearing it inside out with a thin red belt around the middle, but he could tell it was the very same one. He took a deep breath and went to sit at the counter.  
  
“One of these days she’s going to serve you something you don’t like.” Granny’s voice startled him. He was busy watching Ruby take a couple’s order. In his shirt.  
  
“Uh.” He turned his attention to the older woman, clearing his throat. “That’s actually happened twice already.” Victor smiled. “The clam chowder and some kind of weird doughy thing with a whole mess of powdered sugar. I gave them to the nurses.”  
  
Granny blinked and put a hand on her hip. “You didn’t like the Beignet?”  
  
Whale swallowed. “I liked the strawberries?” he said, hoping that this would appease her even though all signs pointed to no.  
  
“Just don’t tell Ruby, those are her favorite.” She nodded as the aforementioned girl headed toward them. “Why don’t you give the poor man his burger and fries this time?” she asked her granddaughter.  
  
Ruby leaned against the counter next to Victor and attempted to ignore the puppy eyes he gave her because he looked really, really cute and if she stared at him any longer, she just might have just given in. She turned to Granny and smiled. “No, he gets pastrami on rye today.” She wrote the order on the pad and went behind the counter to give it to the cook.  
  
“Why do you continue to put up with her?” Granny asked him over her spectacles.  
  
Whale sighed and folded his hands together, watching her every move. “Because she’s wearing my shirt.”  
  
Ruby smiled at him as she grabbed menus for the customers who just walked in, “I was wondering if you’d notice.” 

 

 

* * *

 

 

She came by a few minutes later with his food and sat down next to him. Victor was pretty sure that despite his earlier determination, asking her was going to be out of the question and he really didn’t want to see her in his shirt for any longer than he had to because otherwise there’s a possibility he’d do something that would probably be considered inappropriate. “Can I take this to go?” He asked, pointing at his food and looking anywhere other than at her directly.  
  
Ruby squinted at him, studying him for a few minutes before nodding and taking back his plate to put it in a to-go box. Only in addition to his sandwich she packed one of her own, as well as a bottle of wine, into a picnic basket. If she was going to wait for him to decide when their second date was going to occur, it wasn’t going to happen.  
  
“Let’s go.” She said as she passed by him, grabbing her coat on the way to the door.  
  
“What?” Victor glanced at Granny as if silently asking her what was going on. Granny just shrugged and shook her head.  
  
“You heard me.” Ruby replied.  
  
He sighed and slid off the barstool. This was likely to be their whole relationship; she would say jump and he’d ask how high.  
  


* * *

  
  
“So where are we going?” He asked as soon as they exited the diner. He held out his hand to take the basket from her, but she just shook her head.  
  
“A friend of mine has a boat that we’re going to borrow.” She answered. Seeing his raised eyebrow, she laughed. “C’mon, a picnic lunch on a boat. Don’t you think that’s romantic?”  
  
Victor ran a hand through his hair and laughed because he definitely thinks it’s romantic but he doesn’t want to outright _say_ it. So instead he pushed a hand in his pocket, bringing the other one to his chest and dropping his jaw in mock surprise. “Why Ruby Lucas, is this a _date_?”  
  
“Well,” She shrugged, a grin forming on her lips. “you were never going to get around to it.”  
  
“Wrong.” He stated matter-of-factly, taking the basket from her. A gentleman never lets the woman do all the heavy lifting, it was good manners. “I was going to today but you had to go and wear my shirt and I got all flustered.” He cleared his throat. Her grin turned into a smile and he could just feel his cheeks turning red. “Don’t picnics usually occur on grass in a park?”  
  
Ruby bit her lip, she’d file the shirt thing away for later. “Yes, but isn’t that a cliché thing to do? Everybody goes for a picnic in the park. And yeah, sure that’s an okay date if you want to be cheesy about it. But a picnic on a boat as the sun sets? That’s a proper date. “  
  
Victor stopped walking so he could stare at her. If he wasn’t falling for her before, that definitely did it. His stomach did flip flops as she stopped to look back at him and he had to remember to breathe.  
  
“What?” She asked, unsure if she’s somehow scared him off. Then she thinks how it’s weird that that’s a thing she’s worried about when just last week Victor was just this guy who came in the diner and flirted with her even though she never gave him what he wanted.  
  
He smiled and shook his head, “Nothing.”  
  
She just giggled and wraps an arm in his as they continued walking.  
  


* * *

  
  
She stood at the empty dock, staring at the water while Whale laughed like an idiot behind her. Ruby was pretty sure Ashley never used her boat. She was also pretty sure she asked if she could use it. Granted she didn’t ask when, but _Ashley never uses her boat_.  
  
“Look.” Victor said wiping a tear from his eye, then Ruby actually _looked_ at him with her jaw still dropped and he couldn’t help but start laughing again. She crossed her arms and glared at him and he willed himself to stop laughing. “Okay, sorry. What I was going to say is: We can still have a picnic and watch the sunset, we just won’t be on a boat.” He started to laugh again, but made himself stop so he’s wasn’t on the receiving end of another one of those death glares.  
  
“Fine.” She sighed and sits where she was standing, hanging her legs over the edge of the dock. “I don’t know how to sail a boat anyway.”  
  
Victor sat down next to her, and set the basket between them. He reached in to get his sandwich because he’s pretty much starving at this point, and he hands her hers. “You don’t know how to sail a boat? How on earth were you going to sail us right on out of here?”  
  
Ruby sighed and takes a bite of her sandwich, mulling over her thoughts. “I always wanted to take a road trip.”  
  
“A road trip? Don’t you need a car for that?” He teased.  
  
“I said I _wanted_ to, I never said I was planning on leaving right this second!” She laughed and glanced over at him. He had opened the basked and was pouring them both a glass of wine. “How are you done with your food already?!” Ruby exclaimed, setting the glass he gave her aside.  
  
Victor shrugged. “I was hungry.” He took a sip of his wine. “Why don’t you want to go now? Afraid you’d get lost?”  
  
Ruby stifled a laugh as she washed down the rest of her sandwich with a swig of wine. “No. I have an amazing sense of direction, thank you very much. But I don’t know, I don’t feel right leaving Granny.”  
  
He nodded at her answer, finishing his glass and putting it back in the basket. He understood abandonment more than he’d care to admit. Granted it was a different kind of abandonment than what she was talking about, but he still understood. He leaned back on his hands, turning his head to look at her. No girl was ever going to compare to her beauty; the sun didn’t kiss just anyone the way it did her.  
  
“I wish you’d stop looking at me like that.” She broke him out of his trance, still looking ahead at the sun’s reflection on the water.  
  
“Like what?” he asked, because Victor was completely unaware he was doing any special kind of looking.  
  
“Like the way you’re looking at me right now.” She stated, glancing at him briefly.  
  
“I can’t help it.” He said, completely throwing out any filter he may have had. “You are much more beautiful than the sunset and I can’t deny myself the pleasure of wanting to admire that. Plus the sun light is doing things to your face that I wish I could draw on paper and-“ Victor cut himself off and cleared his throat. He was definitely going to mention the fact that he wanted to kiss every inch of her face in hopes of reclaiming it from the sunlight. But he doesn’t because something about the way she’s looking at him made him want to eat his words and do a nosedive right into the water.  
  
“And what?” Ruby asked, somewhat nervously. She’s been called beautiful, but never so eloquently. And when did he ever say he was an artist? She was pretty sure that had never come up in conversation. She took a deep breath.  
  
Victor glanced down at the wine bottle in the picnic basket before grabbing it, pulling out the cork, and taking a long swing. “Nothing.” He said, re-corking the bottle and placing it back in the basket.  
  
“No.” Ruby said bluntly. “You are not going to get away with not telling me this time. This is going to be the shirt incident all over again.” She crossed her arms and glared at him.  
  
He contemplated for a moment before breathing a heavy sigh and standing up. “Fine, but we need a change of scenery first.” He held out his hand to help her up, grabbing the basket with his other hand. There was a moment after she took his hand and their skin touched that he realized that this is the first time he’s actually held her hand and he wasn’t aware if that was a stupid thing to notice or not. He shook off the thought as he slightly rotated his hand to interlace his fingers with hers. That felt much better.  
  


* * *

  
  
“Where are we going?” Ruby asked, for a variety of reasons. There was the blaringly obvious – the silence between them started to get awkward, and she really did want to know where he was taking her. There was also the fact that he had never let go of her hand since the docks. Not that she was complaining.  
  
“The park.” Victor answered simply. Seeing Ruby’s confusion, he added “I want to be cheesy about it,” with a shrug of his shoulders.  
  
“Good thing I’m not lactose intolerant.”  
  
Victor let out a loud laugh, which made Ruby blush. “Yes, good thing.” He said. Then, as if it was a symbol of good luck, he brought their clasped hands to his mouth and pressed a small kiss to her knuckle.  
  
Stunned, Ruby had to consciously make sure her jaw hadn’t dropped from shock. She then went through memory bank to try to figure out what constituted as a first kiss and she was pretty positive that whatever he just did was not it – though she was unsure if this made her sad or relieved. “Um,” she said, in an attempt to change the subject.  
  
“Sorry,” he said, almost embarrassed. Scratch that, he was _definitely_ embarrassed. “I don’t know why I didn’t that. I just-“  
  
“No,” Ruby assured with a light laugh. “It’s fine. I was just going to um…” Changing the subject was definitely harder when you were interrupted.  
  
But just as she was about to say something he stopped walking, put the basket on the ground, turned to face her, and said, with a nod, “Right.” He then cupped her face with both of his hands and pressed his lips against hers.  
  
“I was just going to ask what your favorite Rolling Stones song was,” she said with a grin after he’s pulled away. He chuckled as moved his hands down to her waist; she put her arms around his shoulders, “now I’m thinking about telling you just how long overdue that was.” She said before returning his kiss.  
  


* * *

  
  
“Graceless lady you know who I am, you know I can’t let you slide through my hands. Wild horses couldn’t drag me away.” They had made it to the park and were sitting side by side on a tire swing, fingers intertwined, rocking their feet on the ground to move the swing back and forth. Ruby had her head on Victor’s shoulder and was staring down at their hands, hands that were made to fit together so perfectly, when Victor had quietly broken the silence between them with those words.  
  
“What?” she shifted her head so she could look up at him.  
  
He smiled as he looked back down at her, happy to not have to resist placing a kiss on her forehead. “It’s my favorite Rolling Stones song.”  
  
“Oh.” She said, going back to staring at their hands. “It’s beautiful.”  
  
Victor thinks that maybe he’d be okay staying like this forever if somebody were to press pause and forget about them. Dreams were definitely coming true, but this feeling was infinite times better than anything he could have dreamed up. He softly grazed his thumb against hers. “You’re the kind of beautiful men write sonnets about. That’s what I was going to say at the docks.”  
  
Part of her was afraid of the fact that he was saying all the right things. The other part of her didn’t care because there were butterflies in her stomach and she never wanted them to leave.  
  
“Well, a version of it anyway.” he added as an after-thought.  
  
Ruby perked her head up and could practically _feel_ him eating his words. She scooted over so she was sitting across from him on the swing now, and brought her hands up to hold the chains. “What version?” she asked, eyebrow raised and a smirk on her lips.  
  
Victor groaned and put his head in his hands for a moment before mimicking her position. How could he tell her he was jealous of _sunlight_? “I just… the sun… your face…” Yeah, he definitely couldn’t. Especially not while she was enjoying this so much. It was easier to do than say at this point. He sighed and brought his hands to her face for the second time that night; first kissing her lips, then placing soft kisses on her cheeks, the bridge of her nose, her forehead, eyelids, chin, and back to her mouth again before resting his forehead on hers. “That.”  
  
“What am I ever going to do with you?” she grinned, biting her bottom lip. Victor definitely had that habit of doing all the right things, too. She brought a hand up to cover his and pressed her lips against his. She could feel her walls starting to build up, but she was bound and determined to hold them off for as long as possible. “Have you ever spun around so the chains twisted and then pulled your feet up so it unravels super-fast?” she asked as she stood up in the middle of the tire swing.  
  
Whale looked up at her for a moment before grinning, “I think I know where you’re going with this.”  
  
They twisted the chain as tight as it would go and Ruby sat on his lap as it untwisted, both of them laughing as they spun around.  
  
The rest of the night was spent playing on everything in the playground. They even pirated a ship at one point, though things took a twist when they hit an iceberg. Victor saved Ruby from drowning, but only on the grounds that he could call her his. He was promptly rewarded with a kiss.  
  
Ruby was fully aware what this meant. She was his and he was hers. She fought off the part of her that was scared because this moment? She wouldn’t trade this moment, this feeling, and that look on his face for the world. So she kissed him and just let it be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The mix for this chapter can be found at my tumblr, which is linked in my profile! Prepare your hearts for Chapter 3, y'all.


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